Witness tamper charge upheld vs. accused coach

March 19, 2009

The Illinois Supreme Court Thursday upheld one of the criminal convictions of a former Aurora gymnastics coach whose retrial on more serious sex abuse charges is pending.

In an opinion released Thursday, the Supreme Court said there was sufficient evidence to convict Michael Cardamone, 32, of Aurora, of harassment of a witness. Cardamone was convicted in 2005 of calling in a false DUI report on the mother of one of his accusers shortly after a court hearing one day.

Cardamone completed the three-year sentence he received for that conviction, serving it concurrently with a 20-year sentence he received after he was convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of seven girls who were students at his family's gymnastics school, where he taught.

The sex abuse convictions were overturned last year by the Illinois Appellate Court, which ruled the DuPage County trial was flawed because the judge allowed too much information about alleged crimes with which Cardamone was not charged and did not allow the defense to discuss psychological issues associated with the girls' testimony.

Cardamone is free on $550,000 bail and is required to stay away from children and not teach gymnastics. A new trial on the sex abuse charges has not been scheduled yet.